ESA 2026: Ecology in an Era of Uncertainty

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah from July 26-31, 2026. This year's meeting theme is "Ecology in an Era of Uncertainty". 

At the annual meeting, NEON will host the Best NEON Presentation Award, a field trip to the Domain 15 ONAQ field site, workshops and short courses focused on NEON data, and  technical presentations. NEON staff will also be available to answer questions and provide information at the NEON booth in the Exhibit Hall.

Early bird registration is available until June 18. Register to attend at https://esa.org/saltlake2026/registration/.

More details about events will be added as the ESA 2026 program continues to be updated.

NEON at ESA 2026

All times Mountain Daylight Time

Visit the NEON booth (#512) in the Exhibit Hall

Award for Best NEON Presentation 

NEON is hosting the Best NEON Presentation Award for the second year. The award recognizes an outstanding oral presentation featuring research that incorporates NEON data, samples, specimens, or NEON Research Support Services. NEON is currently offering the Best NEON Presentation Award to oral presentations only, which will be judged during the annual meeting and announced by NEON shortly after the meeting concludes.

If your research uses NEON data, samples, and/or infrastructure and the accepted talk mentions NEON, complete the interest form before June 30 to be considered for this award of up to $1,000. 

Field Trips

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) in the Great Basin - Visit the ONAQ (Onaqui) NEON Terrestrial Field Site. Time: Sun. Jul. 26, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. Field trips require advance registration. Choose Field Trip 5 during registration. 

• Join us for a tour of one of NEON's 81 field sites and learn about long term ecological data collection at the terrestrial field site, Onaqui NEON. The trip involves viewing the unique ecology of the site, demonstrations of sampling techniques, and the opportunity to learn more about NEON resources and the history of data collection at ONAQ. 

Short Courses

All About NEON Plant Data. NEON Organizer: Claire Lunch, NEON Co-Organizer: Eric Sokol, Time: Sun, Jul. 26, 9:00am - 12:00 pm. Short Courses require advance registration. Choose Short Course 4 during registration. 

Ecological Synthesis: The Nuts and Bolts of Team Science. NEON Co-Organizer: Eric Sokol, Time: Fri, Jul. 31, 8:00 - 11:00 am . Short Courses require advance registration. Choose Short Course 18 during registration. 

Workshops

Forecasting Populations and Communities: A Hands-on Example from the NEON Ecological Forecasting Challenge. NEON Organizer: Eric Sokol, NEON Co-Organizer: Chandra Earl, Time: Wed. Jul. 29, 11:45am - 1:15 pm.

Implementing Darwin Core Data Standard to Enhance the FAIRness of Biological Survey and Monitoring Data. NEON Co-Organizer: Chandra Earl, NEON Ambassador Co-Organizer: Kit Lewers, Time: Thu. Jul. 30, 8 - 9:30 am.

Empowering Scientists to Build Data-Rich Ecological Learning Experiences with NEON. NEON Co-Organizer: Claire Lunch, Time: Tue. Jul. 28, 11:45am - 1:15 pm. 

Generating Plant Functional Types Across a NEON Site: A Hands-on Tutorial. NEON Ambassador Organizer: Anna Spiers, NEON Co-Organizer: Claire Lunch. Time: Thu. Jul 30, 11:45am - 1:15 pm.

Special Sessions

Welcome to the NEON Biorepository: A National Resource for Preserving Ecological Samples and Making Physical and Digital Data Accessible. NEON Organizer: Hojun Song NEON Co-Organizer: Chandra Earl. Time: Thu. Jul. 30, 1:30 - 3:00 pm.

NEON as a Research Platform: Services, Access, and Case Studies. NEON Organizer: Rommel Zulueta, NEON Co-Organizers: Chandra Earl, & Hojun Song. Time: Mon. Jul. 27, 11:45am - 1:15 pm.

Roadmap Toward an Environmental Field or Environmental Field Research Technician Certification. NEON Co-Organizer: Tanya Maslak, Time:  Thu. July 30, 10:00 - 11:30 am.  

Making Ecological Data More Open and Interoperable Across Projects and Platforms. NEON Co-Organizers: Eric Sokol & Chandra Earl, NEON Ambassador Co-Organizer: Kit Lewers, Time: Wed. Jul. 29, 10:00 - 11:30 am.

Symposia

Building an AI-ready Ecology and Biodiversity Data Infrastructure for Science & Action. NEON Co-Organizers: Kate Thibault & Eric Sokol. Time: Mon. Jul. 27, 3:30 - 5:00 pm. 

Career Building & Recruiting

A day in the life of a NEON scientist: Responsibilities and Career Paths Critical to the National Ecological Observatory Network. NEON Organizer: Tanya Maslak, NEON Co-Organizer: Callie Puntenney. Time: Tue. Jul. 28, 10:30 - 11:30 am.   

Learn more about ESA 2026 at https://esa.org/saltlake2026/